Kinda Funny

The next performer comes onto the stage and sits on the stool in front of the microphone. That's it. He's responsible for introducing his songs and getting the audience on his side."This happened half an hour ago," he says. "And I can't believe I'm going to tell you about it."The Open Stage is in the Legion and he is the third performer. "I was sitting enjoying a beer, waiting for my turn when I felt, well, cold in my lower regions. I looked down but everything seemed fine." He shifts on the stool."Just to be sure, I go to the washroom and yeah, my zipper isn't broken but I have a huge hole in the crotch of my pants."He had discovered the problem in time to go home and grab a new pair of jeans. "I'm just glad I didn't sit here with my manhood hanging out." By this time the audience was with him and laughing aloud.He proceeds to entertain with three country ballads. Every performer comes to the stage with his own set of insecurities and like the fellow above, there is no one else for support. You're alone on the stage and any mistakes are your own. The performances range from amateur to near-professional. The performers were out there, appreciated and in the end had fun.Writing can be like that. You worry about baring yourself to your audience, you worry that you've left yourself open to ridicule, but worse you worry that no one will ever read what you're written. It's time to take a note from the Open Stage. Write what pleases you. Edit, edit. Put it out there. It takes nerve to stand on a stage alone and make music. It takes nerve to write and be rejected but everyone has a voice. Maybe it's not the next Margaret Atwood's, or the next Stephen King's. The molds have been broken on them, anyway. New voices will make their own magic. There's room for smaller voices and lesser voices. Publication in an on-line magazine, in a struggling literary journal, in your own blog is the Open Stage of the writer. There's room for everyone if you put y